I'm not a fan of HDR but used it on this since the dynamic range was so high. I don't like having the horizon in the middle either but not sure if cropping would improve it. I turned the saturation up to 11 on this one but I like the look for now. Avon Fishing Pier by lozinskitom, on Flickr]Fishing Pier[/url]

I did the edit with duplicate masked layers one with the midtone slider moved right to darken the sky and the other moved left to lighten the foreground. I then blended those layers in to the original with the masks.

I cropped out the rocks on the right because the focal point here is the building and flag on the end of the pier and I didn't want the contrast / detail of the rocks to tempt the viewer to leave it. After cropping I noticed a minor detail I'd overlooked previously, the small solitary cloud that sticks up and mirrors the shape flag on the end of the pier.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I didn't think adding extra space to the top worked so I went the other way and cropped the top off. I averaged the original with the HDR version and now those zero color values are gone (except for the blacks.) I straightened the horizon, cut the distracting rocks off the right side. I guess I'm a sucker for color because my version is still more saturated then all the suggestions, probably wouldn't print that well.